Top tips: Promoting healthy eating with parents
Nurseries play a vital role in shaping children’s eating habits and encouraging a positive approach to food. By working in partnership with parents, you can help create a consistent message about healthy eating both in the setting and at home.
Top tips for promoting healthy eating with parents
- Share your nursery’s approach to healthy eating, including meal plans, recipes, portion sizes, and the importance of balanced nutrition
- Run healthy eating workshops where parents can learn more about these ideas
- Provide tasters at any events, such as parents’ evenings and stay and plays, so parents can try the healthy food you supply
- Encourage parent involvement in meal planning by asking parents for feedback on nursery meals and invite them to suggest family-favourite healthy dishes that could be introduced
- Promote positive role modelling by encouraging parents to model healthy eating habits at home, such as eating together as a family, offering a variety of foods, and avoiding the use of food as a reward
- Create a ‘Healthy Eating’ display with photos and children’s artwork to showcase healthy meals and snacks
- Use resources from the NHS Better Health: Healthier Families website to provide simple food swap ideas to reduce sugar, salt and fat, particularly in snacks and drinks
- Remember to promote milk and water as the best drinks for children, both for nutrition and oral health
- Share tips with parents on how to encourage children to try new foods, such as offering small portions, repeated exposure, and making food fun with colourful and varied textures and shapes
- Highlight children’s healthy eating achievements through newsletters or your nursery app such as “Tasting Tuesdays” or cooking activities to inspire parents to try at home.
NDNA products to support you with this activity
PANCo – https://ndna.org.uk/panco/
- MyNDNA
